You Can Make Money Writing About Shit

March 6, 2009

You can make money writing about anything, from shit to straw house building. So, even if your topic is strange, or obscure, you can still turn it into a book and sell it.

In “Damn – Why Didn’t I Write That?”, Mark McCutcheon lists a huge number of non-fiction books that have sold well. And if you check out the examples below, you can see that it’s possible to make money writing about some weird stuff:

Worms Eat My Garbage by Mary Appelhof: Writing this self published book on composting was a great money maker for Appelhof. She sold an amazing 100,000 copies.

How To Live With A Neurotic Dog by Stephen Baker: 60,000 people were happy to pay good money for advice on dealing with their crazy pets.
Polish Your Furniture With Pantyhouse by Joey Green: Ok, I’ll admit – I’ve used socks to dust (it’s more fun). But I would never have expected 85,000 people to buy this book.

Are You Normal? by Bernice Kanner Can you believe that 100,000 people wanted to know the answer to this question and Kanner made plenty of money reassuring them?

How To Make Your Man Behave In 21 Days Or Less Using The Secrets Of Professional Dog Trainers by Karen Salmansohn: 147,000 barking mad women bought this book.
How To Shit In The Woods by Kathleen Meyer: 1,500,000 people wanted to know how to go to the loo outdoors. Apparently, the book tells you how to go, no matter where you are and what you’re doing. And it even shows you how to take your shit home with you. See, I told you if was possible to make money writing about shit.

Gone With Grits by Diane Pfiefer: I’ve never understood the fascination with this icky sounding American food. But Pfiefer realised the potential to make lots of money writing about it. 400,000 people love grits so much, they bought this self-published book.

When you consider that the average non-fiction book takes 3 or 4 months to write, some of these writers make a lot of money for the amount of time they spend writing. And many will have gone on to sell more copies of their books, since this list was put together.

Comments

It is amazing what books people buy, isn’t it? One thing I did notice is they all have catchy titles so that becomes the first “draw”. It would be interesting to read a few of these and see if the content makes them worth the purchase.

Hi Cath: I often see things and think to myself: why would anyone buy that. And yet there are people who will buy it. It’s really funny that so many people are walking around wondering if they’re normal

I read a couple of books about worms about ten years ago. At that time, I was giving serious thought to the idea of breeding worms in my backyard (actually, the backyard of my parents) for a hobby and extra cash.

For the record, I never went ahead with it. After my auntie tried it and found that she had been seriously mislead by the promoter of a worm breeding scheme, I decided that it smelled like one of the worst ideas ever.

Hi Andrew – My skin is crawling as I type. I guess you would have bought a book like that then. Bnd I’m glad you didn’t go ahead with it. Aside from it sounding so yucky – I know someone who set up a worm breeding business and things went wrong.

Hi Barbara – I didn’t realise the book had been around so long. But I should have guessed you might have bought it.

Now the sneezing diet would be pretty fun. If Atkins will sell, anything will.

I guess a lot of people just read those diet books and don’t follow. I bought a blood match diet book once and as soon as I read that folk with my blood type weren’t allowed coffee, I gave it away.

Hi Mare – It’s kind of scary isn’t it? I’m going to see if there’s an Amazon preview – I’d love to know what kind of stuff is inside it.

Hi Jannie – I thought it would just be one of those gimmicky titles until I read the Amazon description. It’s amazing that 1,500,000 didn’t know how to shit outdoors.

I think you could write a funny book on just about anything and it would sell.

Hi Vered – When you look at these titles it sounds like a lot of fun doesn’t it. Maybe you could write a humourous book on what the legal system is really like – I would love to read something like that.

Hi Cath – I’m with Jannie – do people really need to be told about how to shit in the woods? Just ask a bear, or the pope for those who mix their metaphors.

What about How to Write a Non-Fiction Book about Something so Preposterous You’d Never Guess it would Sell. I’ve had so many careers I’ve thought about doing exposes on several different industries: the personal injury legal machine, the garment business, nightmares real estate school doesn’t prepare you for, etc.

What about pitfalls in personal relationships? “If a jerk has a job that doesn’t mean he’s dynamic – you’re just comparing him to the last loser you dumped” “Your relative will keep guilting you into financial bailouts as long as you keep giving in” “If you keep listening to crap about yourself, you’ll come to believe it” “Hanging around assholes makes you exactly what?”

I can see now that I’ve missed an enormous amount of opportunity! Who knew? We’d all better get to work!

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times…there are no bad products, only bad marketing. I am convinced that these seemingly unsellable publications sold well because the authors were very good at finding their markets. In this great big wide world there is a market for EVERYTHING. The key is to find it and sell it something. I’m off the write a book: “How to make farts smell like hot baked chocolate chip cookies”.

Cath — You gave me my laugh for the day. It’s hard to believe these books actually sold the number of copies they did. I like the one “Am I Normal” and “How To Make Your Man Behave In 21 Days Or Less Using The Secrets Of Professional Dog Trainers.”

Also, the comments left by others added to my laughter. This was a post I needed to read today because laughter is very HEALTHY. Thanks :~)

LMAO Betsy – I would love to read some of those expose stories. There’s too much false crap around promoting mediocre industries and too many people are getting screwed.

And your personal relationship tips sound a whole lot more useful than some of the ones I’ve read in the past.

Hi Jannie – I’ll think about those. Another problem is that until I get a bit better at using photoshop I need something that will fit into the space my existing one is in.

I was getting advice on another blog from a branding expert and he says I need to come across as more of an anarchist. I’m still trying to figure out a way to do that without upsetting the majority of my readers.

Hi Jim – Thanks. I’m looking forward to reading that. Living great and working less sounds like a bloody good idea.

Hi Miguel – That’s a really good point. It would be hard to get folk to take your literary work seriously, if they knew you’d written, “100 Questions To Ask Your Goldfish”. I guess a pseudonym would save a lot of writers from starvation.

Hi T – that’s so true. There really does seem to be a market for everything. Normally, I would have said your book idea was ridiculous but after reading about the rest, it will probably be a bestseller.

Hi Sara – You’re welcome. I’m glad it made you feel better – laughter is always good. Imagine being in a relationship with someone who actually saw you reading the dog trainer book. I doubt whether you’d need it anymore.

This makes me think that I take my writing far too seriously. Obviously many folks do judge a book by it’s cover and they do buy shit. I’ll never buy a Dummies book because I don’t like the inference. But look how many millions have been sold.

I agree with Barbara. catchy titles do seem to work well. I still can’t believe the sales of some of these books though. This is quite inspiring. Makes me re-think my stance that I don’t know enough about anything to write a non-fiction book. I must know something, surely!

Hi Kelly – It does seem like the title is important. I’m betting that if you sat down and made a list, you could come up with a heap of subjects to write about. What about your backpacking journey in Mexico for a start – I’m betting that would make interesting reading.

Hey Cath,
Another great post title, and a very funny post.
Still, I’d have to disagree with your title (in general), and I thing 95% of the blogs and websites on the internet prove my point! ~ Steve, the trade show guru

Most of the research papers I’ve done are on topics that I know are very peculiar but interesting. This is to drive enough “traffic” to my papers. Essay writing has been a part of my daily habit and it seems that everyday, my love for the written words grows bigger. I know that with writing, anyone can live a happy and comfortable life – it’s just a matter of showing your love for the written words plus an improved writing skill and a positive attitude towards work.